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Woman No. 17

A Novel

"High in the Hollywood Hills, writer Lady Daniels has decided to take a break from her husband. Left alone with her children, she's going to need a hand taking care of her young son if she's ever going to finish her memoir. In response to a Craigslist ad, S arrives, a magnetic young artist who will live in the secluded guest house out back, care for Lady's toddler, Devin, and keep a watchful eye on her older, teenage son, Seth. S performs her day job beautifully, quickly drawing the entire family into her orbit, and becoming a confidante for Lady. But in the heat of the summer, S's connection to Lady's older son takes a disturbing, and possibly destructive, turn. And as Lady and S move closer to one another, the glossy veneer of Lady's privileged life begins to crack, threatening to expose old secrets that she has been keeping from her family. Meanwhile, S is protecting secrets of her own, about her real motivation for taking the job. S and Lady are both playing a careful game, and every move they make endangers the things they hold most dear."--Dust jacket.

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There is not one single likable character in this novel : all are self-centered, greedy, manipulative, and do not deserve any sympathy from the reader . Very negative and unhealthy , do not recommend at all.

Edan Lepucki’s new novel Woman No. 17 alternates between two characters: Lady, an upper-middle class woman of leisure, and Esther, an art student. Esther works as Lady’s live-in nanny, and the closeness between the two very different women soon makes Lady an object for Esther’s own obsessive artistic interests.

The book focuses on their strange and increasingly bizarre relationship, which often borders on exploitive and manipulative. It is told in dueling viewpoint chapters, in a kind of confessional tone. The revelations are genuinely funny; some are lucidly vulnerable and real. But most are just roll-your-eyes worthy. (I don’t know; perhaps I wasn’t in such a forgiving mood when I was reading the book.) Both women are astonishingly self-aware and also self-deluded—and you feel for them but are also frustrated by them. Both women fixate and reflect on their damaged relationships with their own mothers. In Lady’s case, it makes her confront her own anxieties about being a mother.

What I found compelling in Woman No. 17 is the see-saw tilting of their relationship as the two women get closer. Esther and Lady are more alike than different and it’s in those shocking parallels that things start to get dark and interesting. Esther’s art project is a performance piece that explores her deeply dysfunctional relationship with her own mother. In a kind of method-acting approach, she assumes her mother’s identity, pretending to be a younger version of her, using her same mannerisms and adopting the same idiosyncrasies and bad habits like her mother’s youthful binge drinking. The book’s title refers to a picture in a series taken by the Lady’s sister-in-law, also an artist. The photo shows her in a previous life, when she wasn’t so well-off. She is half-dressed and partially nude. Lady abhors the photo, which reflects her deep-seated anxieties about her inadequacies as a mother.

The relationship between Esther and Lady soon crosses that Rubicon into dark, illicit territory. But this crowning development is ruined because Lepucki’s meandering buildup takes a long time to get there. The result is that you have story that should be psychologically taut and thrilling but instead feels ponderous and sluggish. If you’re expecting some meaty LA-based neo-noir goodness (I was), prepare to be a little disappointed.

Edan Lepucki’s second novel explores the complicated relationships between mothers and their children, female friendships, the power of art, and deception. The story alternates between the perspectives of two women who are at different stages in their lives, but who are spiraling out of control at the same time. These women are among my favorite types of narrators: unreliable and sometimes unlikeable, self-aware but also self-destructive. A darkish read with some sly humor, Lepuki does a fine job capturing the emotions and insecurities that women experience.